From bootlegs to bonuses: How UFC 111's Tomasz Drwal made his way to the big time

While UFC officials have recently made it clear they have little tolerance for individuals hijacking their pay-per-view broadcasts by attacking said parties in court, current middleweight contender Tomasz Drwal (17-2-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) is an example of why a bit of piracy isn’t the worst thing in the world.

After all, the UFC hasn’t quite yet taken Poland by storm, but it was a little piracy more than 10 years ago that started Drwal’s journey to the UFC.

“When I was 17, I watched a friend’s video tape of the UFC,” Drwal recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). “The copy was really bad. There was two languages on there. But even though the copy wasn’t good, I liked it.

“I liked the Brazilian style, and I already trained karate and kickboxing, so I decided to start training Brazilian jiu jitsu.”

Drwal was hooked, and he began competing professionally just a few short years later. It wasn’t the most popular choice for his family, who knew little about the sport. But after the “Gorilla” lost just once in his first 16 professional bouts, they started to soften their stance.

“They support me,” Drwal said. “They crossed fingers for me, but when I started to do MMA seven or eight years ago, they weren’t happy with what I do. But now it’s changed. They see that MMA is a really hard and normal sport.”

Drwal’s success on the European circuit earned him a look from the UFC, and the world’s largest MMA promotion brought him on board as a light heavyweight back at UFC 75 in September 2007.

He was promptly beaten by Brazilian Thiago Silva.

At that point, Drwal realized he would need to make some change if he hoped to compete at the highest level of the sport, and he began making journeys to the U.S. to better his training.

“After I lost my first fight in the UFC with Thiago Silva, I decided to change my environment and my coaches, my people,” Drwal said. “I knew that something was wrong with my preparation during this fight. I had a manger that brought me out to the U.S. after my first loss. This is how I found my new training camp.”

Drwal now trains at the Throwdown Gym in San Diego, Calif., and he’s in the process of moving to the U.S. so he can work there full-time.

“I’m currently trying to move out to San Diego for good,” Drwal said. “For my fight career, there’s nowhere else for me to be.”

Drwal made another change lately: he dropped to 185 pounds for his UFC 103 fight with Drew McFedries. He made the change depite coming off of a “Knockout of the Night” performance against Mike Ciesnolevicz at The Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale in June 2009.

“My coaches decided to have me move to 185 (pounds), but I’m always ready to fight anybody at my weight,” Drwal said. “But for right now, I like this weight. I feel comfortable at this weight. There is a lot of strong competition like (Rousimar) Palhares, (Nate) Marquardt and (Anderson) Silva. I never cut my weight to 185, but when I did it, I felt much better and more comfortable at this weight.”

Drwal has been fed a steady diet of strikers since coming to the UFC, but matchmaker Joe Silva has now elected to give him submission ace Rousimar Palhares (10-2 MMA, 3-1 UFC) at March’s UFC 111 event in New Jersey.

Drwal believes his current training regimen will have him well-prepared for the challenge.

“I train with Dean (Lister) and about 10 other black belts,” Drwal said. “They are here daily, and I’m getting all I need. We also have plans to visit Dan Henderson because he fought with Palhares before.”

A win over Palhares would be Drwal’s fourth straight in the UFC, and a streak of the magnitude would certainly merit some real contender-type discussions for a man that is sometimes forgotten among the organization’s countless stars.

The humble 28-year-old refuses to worry about any of that. He just wants to make you cheer.

“I want to give the public good action, good fights – not boring fights,” Drwal said. “The best way to do this is by knockout or something like that. Action, that’s my style.

“It’s going to be ‘Fight of the Night.'”

For complete coverage of UFC 111, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of MMAjunkie.com.

MMAjunkie.com Radio broadcasts Monday-Friday at noon ET (9 a.m. PT) live from the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino’s Race & Sports Book. The show is hosted by Gorgeous George, MMAjunkie.com lead staff reporter John Morgan and producer Goze. For more information or to download past episodes, go to www.mmajunkie.com/radio.